China’s new ‘Air Silk Road’ brings thousands of tons of goods from Xinjiang to Europe

LONDON — Dozens of new cargo routes carrying thousands of tons of goods from China’s Xinjiang province to Europe have opened in the past year.

Over 40 freight routes now connect Europe to airports in the region, where Beijing is accused of subjecting the Uyghur ethnic group to forced labor and human rights abuses.

More than nine cargo companies have established routes from Xinjiang to the U.K., Germany, Hungary, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Spain and other European destinations, according to a new analysis of air freight data by the Washington advocacy group Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) shared with POLITICO.

One carrier said there is no evidence their freight is made with forced labor. Others argued they aren’t responsible for the supply chains of their cargo.

“The rapid expansion of air cargo routes between the Uyghur Region and Europe poses a growing threat to the integrity of EU and U.K. supply chains,” according to the UHRP report, which tracked 12 months of cargo flight traffic from June 2024 to May this year.

Its analysis shows the flights are carrying e-commerce goods, textiles, footwear, electronics, auto parts and agricultural products — all sectors exposed to the risk of Uyghur forced labor.

“I’m deeply concerned regarding these findings,” said David Alton, chair of the U.K. Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, noting the rise in flights “appears to fly in the face of the recent decision by the European Union to adopt a forced labour screening mechanism.”

In July, Alton’s committee found the U.K. is also at risk of becoming “a dumping ground” for goods made with modern slavery and called on ministers to deploy targeted import bans to make up for the shortcomings of Britain’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act, which requires firms to publish an annual statement detailing their efforts to prevent forced labor, including assessing risks.

Forced labor ‘widespread’ in Xinjiang

European manufacturing giant Volkswagen has left the region as it has been “unable to independently audit the extent of forced labor in their supply chain,” Alton said. “The Chinese government has consistently refused access to United Nations Special Rapporteurs to investigate.”

North American and European governments, the United Nations, university researchers, human rights watchdogs, think tanks and dozens of testimonials from survivors have shown evidence of Beijing’s coercion of Uyghur labor across Xinjiang.

In 2021, British lawmakers voted to recognize that China is carrying out a “genocide” in the region. This includes the “widespread use of forced labour,” said then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. The U.S. banned imports made with Uyghur forced labor the same year and expanded those laws in early 2025.

“We have to presume all products made in the Uyghur Region are made with forced labour,” said Sian Lea, head of UK and European advocacy at Anti-Slavery International, in a written statement. Forced labor by the Chinese state “is widespread and systematic,” she said.

Flights on the radar

The Chinese government has positioned Xinjiang’s main Ürümqi airport as a central hub in its Air Silk Road strategy, integrating the region into global markets as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese Communist Party officials cheered the region’s expansion of global airfreight connections in 2023 as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s project.

“The allegation of ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang is a ‘lie of the century’ concocted by anti-China elements to smear China,” said a spokesperson for China’s embassy in London, insisting “there’s no ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang” and that UHRP’s report is “completely false.”

“No amount of slander or defamation can change the fact that Xinjiang’s products are high-quality and widely welcomed,” the spokesperson added. “Nor can it obscure the region’s steady economic and social progress.”

Before June 2024, only two cargo routes from Ürümqi to Europe were identified by the Uyghur Human Rights Project’s analysis of public flight data.

Dozens now reach Europe directly and with stopovers. The largest number of air freight flights tracked by UHRP arrived in the U.K. with 313 carrying e-commerce and other goods, followed by Hungary with 162 cargo arrivals.

The research follows reporting by POLITICO early this year showing a rapid increase in cargo flights from Xinjiang to the U.K.

In May alone, 2,000 tons of goods from Ürümqi entered the EU, Switzerland and the U.K.

Cargo companies speak

Airlines operating cargo routes between Ürümqi airport and Europe during the period include CAMEX Airlines, European Cargo, Geo-Sky, MNG Airlines, My Freighter, ROMCargo, S.F. Airlines, Titan Airways and Uzbekistan Airways, the UHRP analysis shows.

Georgia’s CAMEX Airlines has “no communication with manufacturers, cargo owners or consignees,” said the firm’s Chief Operating Officer Shako Seturidze, noting it carries cargo for freight forwarding companies and “cannot check the manufacturers or the factories where the goods were made.”

CAMEX Airlines “oppose use of force[d] labor in any type, shape, or place,” he said. “As per our knowledge and research none of our cargo comes from Xinjiang Province itself,” Seturidze explained, noting clients send cargo to Ürümqi airport via land from China’s eastern and southern cities, “so their airfreight rate is lower.” While they ship e-commerce, clothes, and electronic goods, he said, “the cargo is not originated from Xinjiang.”

Some cargo carriers say they are in the dark about what they’re carrying.

“We do not have direct visibility into, nor knowledge of, the specific contents, precise origin (beyond the airport of loading), or the production methods of the individual consignments of cargo transported by our customers,” said Zurab Kiparoidze, Georgia-based Geo-Sky’s vice president of legal and administrative affairs.

“We firmly state that we have no knowledge of or involvement in the alleged issues raised by UHRP regarding forced labor-tainted goods,” Kiparoidze said, explaining the firm’s “operations are strictly limited to flying cargo from one airport to another.”

British firm European Cargo said it remains “vigilant about the challenges of managing this risk,” adding that it adheres to U.K. laws like the Modern Slavery Act 2015 meant to guard against forced labor.

The firm said that it had recently updated its business practices in light of the World Uyghur Council’s successful court challenge against the British National Crime Agency last year. The NCA was found to have failed to investigate potential money laundering connected to cotton imports allegedly produced through forced labor in Xinjiang.

Other airfreight carriers named in this story, including MNG Airlines, My Freighter, ROMCargo, S.F. Airlines, Titan Airways and Uzbekistan Airways, did not respond to requests for comment.

Rights groups want action

Seven new airports are expected to open in Xinjiang before the end of this year, adding to the 26 civilian airports already operating in the region and underscoring the deepening integration of its logistics links with the rest of the world.

The EU introduced its Forced Labour Regulation in late 2025 to clamp down on abuses used to make goods entering the bloc. While the U.K. doesn’t have an equivalent law, its 2015 Modern Slavery Act is also meant to bar goods made using forced labor from entering the country. Yet, both laws are difficult to enforce, as few goods are checked at the border and supply chains are challenging to track.

“Banning imports from [Xinjiang] would signal that governments are not prepared to support state-imposed forced labour,” said Anti-Slavery International’s Lea, pointing to the U.S.’s 2021 ban on imports from the region. “Since it is difficult to conduct meaningful due diligence on the ground in the context of state-imposed forced labour, businesses should immediately disengage from the Uyghur Region,” she said.

“Europe’s commitment to eradicating forced labor from supply chains must extend beyond policy declarations,” said UHRP’s Director of Research, Henryk Szadziewski. “Every uninspected shipment from Ürümchi [Ürümqi] represents a failure to act — and a potential violation of Uyghur human rights.”